David Ebershoff says writing gives him “an understanding of my life in a way that nothing else does”.

“I have a better understanding of who I am after I’ve written, and that tells me about myself and about my place in the world,” he says.

Ebershoff’s place in the world was informed by growing up in Pasadena, California. He was in his early teens when he discovered he was gay.

“When I was about 12, I started reading and really seeking out stories which told me something about life and that gave me a sense of identity,” he tells Queensland Pride.

“As a gay kid, that’s how I figured things out, through reading ... I wanted to connect with gay people. I didn’t see any examples of that in Pasadena, but at the library there were gay people on the shelves.”

It was the transformation of Danish trans woman, Lili Elbe – the first transsexual in history – which would provide the basis of Ebershoff ‘s first novel, The Danish Girl, published in 2000 and currently being made into a film with Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron.

“I was really interested in her undergoing this extraordinary transformation,” says Ebershoff. “In America, there had been the case of Christine Jorgensen, who became this campy, B-list celebrity, but what interested me about Lili was not only that she was the first to undergo gender reassignment, but that she was lost to history.”

For his second book, Pasadena (2002), he returned to his roots. Again, the theme was transformation: the way the state of California changed so rapidly from a virtual nowhere to a powerhouse ‘sunshine state’ (sound familiar, Queenslanders?)

Ebershoff’s most recent novel, The 19th Wife, is a murder mystery based on the life of Ann Brigham Young, the wife of the founder of Mormonism.

“I was talking to a professor of 19th century women’s history, and she told me tidbits about people who had been lost to time, and then she said: ‘And then there’s the 19th wife.’ I thought, ‘That’s an unusual number in front of the word wife.’

“I decided to interview some modern-day [Mormon] wives and I went to southern Utah where there were some polygamous communities. I wanted to tell a story which articulated why polygamy existed ... and I thought the way to do that was through a gay character rooted [in today’s world], and to make it a genre novel.

“It’s a mystery novel, and the central question the book poses is: What does anyone believe, and the colour and shape of that, and to juxtapose that with the mystery of faith.”

The 19th Wife is published by Black Swan. The Danish Girl, starring Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron, will be released in 2010.

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